"To do it, you have to do it."
Susan Branch
There's nothing quite so daunting as picking up an old unfinished project. The word 'unfinished' gives our inner gut an unsettled feeling. And staring at a listless dog-eared pile (paper or digital) certainly doesn't encourage any kind of inspiration. If you've ever left a craft project undone, like counted cross-stitch, you'll know what I mean. You reach in the bag to find a jumble of supplies of thread and yarn (you're certain you never left it in such a state). First you peer with squinty eyes at the pattern to figure out where you left off, then you try to locate the exact spot on your half-stitched canvas where to ply the needle. It's doable. Just starting is half the battle.
We all know it's no easier for writers to pull out an old project with its various drafts and piles of tattered notes. Even if we might still have a desire to finish it, we've probably lost that first flush of excitement. In our mind's eye, it's old hat. As my dear friend's daughter Karla said, "[We] have to be reinspired to see the old content in a new and fresh way".
I need to be reinspired for a certain project that comes to mind.
In my last post HERE I mentioned a memoir that had percolated in my heart for numerous years before I started it the autumn of 2013. I had read Lisa Dale Norton's memoir writing book Shimmering Images, contacted her in California and signed up to take her memoir writing course. I learned a lot. Looking back, what I should have done at that point was to take advantage of her editorial services and further instruction. But I unwisely thought I could do it myself (resources being at a premium at the time). I spent 30 days gathering the memories and writing them down, also doing research from old journals. I had around 40,000 words. In May 2014, I went on a writers' retreat to work on it and received encouraging support from other writers. On my own, indecision, still unclear of what all I would include, and never settling on how to proceed got me tangled up (like those yarns and threads I mentioned earlier). I worked away on it here and there but having never undertaken such a large writing project—I was a blogger at heart—it all felt too big.
Until 2018, at which point Joy Bailey and I joined forces and became writing buddies. We were going to help each other get our writing projects done. We used as our how-to manual the book by Cary Tennis and Danelle Morton Finishing School: The Happy Ending to That Writing Project You Can't Seem to Get Done. Work plans were made; due dates were scheduled. We agreed to check in with each other once a week. Reviewing each other's work wasn't part of the plan, it was just to have some accountability to one another. Oh, and we'd send text 'pings!' when we started each day's work. We were on a roll. We met our writing goals. We were making progress. In this new restart, by this time I had mulled enough on my memoir that I had a clear idea of where I was going with it. I had chapter outlines, and several chapters had good drafts now done. It should have been clear sailing, right?
Then other things crowded in, those life events that happen to many of us; plans got railroaded. Joy and I still made weekly goals, but they grew smaller as we tried to fit our writing around all the other needful things going on. Things like health issues for ourselves and for family members, moving and building a new home for one of us, living through a global pandemic, family emergencies. Sometimes all the energy we had on check in day was to say, we got little done, but we're still here, hoping for better writing days ahead.
By this time it's 2022 and the project was on a slow burn to fizzling out. The desire to keep working faded. Maybe it had disappeared into the pandemic ether. Although the lockdowns and different life patterns during this time inspired many people to create new work, I was not one of them. Inspiration was near zero, as was the sense of urgency to get written what had lived bright in my heart for nearly a decade. Whose idea was this, I never really wanted to write a book, did I? I finally admitted to Joy this last spring that maybe the season to write this memoir had passed, and I didn't know if I wanted to start again.
But God... (as Connie Inglis has been known to say).
Fast forward to August 2025. Our blog's writing prompt happened to be about the seasons of life and writing. I hadn't planned to write a guest post for it, but I felt drawn to consider doing so (it's the one I mentioned earlier HERE). Publishing the post and receiving kindly feedback from readers, I have been feeling a rising interest...with gentle tugs at my heart to revisit this stalled project. This will make it the third or fourth restart since my first attempt. As autumn surges in on the refreshing breezes, it comes with a sense of hopefulness that maybe I can start again... again. I chatted with Joy to see if she'd be up for reconvening Finishing School. Yes, she was feeling a similar resurgence of zeal. Perhaps the pair of us joining forces once again, facing the 'elements' together, we'll achieve our goal of projects finished. We pulled out the Finishing School book to refresh our minds on how to proceed.
Now, I'm asking the good Lord to reinspire us, as Karla had suggested was needed. And to give us a fresh vision on how to go forward in this current season of our lives. You see, Karla after reading my last post said she knows people who would be encouraged by my story... should I feel His urging to start again.
This time next year, perhaps someone here will ask, "Did you finish that memoir you were working on last September?" I would like to respond, "Yes, I did!" And, maybe, even hand them my book. Fingers crossed.
(Top) Photo credit: Image by Mark from Pixabay
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Brenda has been a longtime member of InScribe and is glad for this company of writers with whom she can share the writing journey. At the present time, she guest blogs here and writes regularly on her own blog It's A Beautiful Life. She can also be found on Facebook, Instagram, and BlueSky.
